$375 Cougar Became a 9-Second Car at Drag Week 2013

Greg Mayton didn't have to travel far to get to Drag Week™—the Ownesboro, KY resident is lucky enough to have Drag Week™ start an hour away from his backyard. Even better, Drag Week™ finishes at the same location, so Greg was able to get some real shut-eye in his very own bed earlier than most participants. We bet Greg was dreaming on Cloud 9 because when you complete Drag Week™, you get to join a select society of the ultimate test of Man and Machine.

Greg raced his 1987 Mercury Cougar in the Modified Power Adder class. Sure, it isn't sexy like a '67 Cougar, but neither were Willys, and no self-respecting racer would kick that out of bed. Seven years ago, Greg bought the Cougar for $375, then put it on a rotisserie and welded all the seams, painted the bottom, and sent it to have a roll car installed. The great thing about these cars are even though they were not fast or powerful, you could still opt for a 5.0, which means there's room for more. In Greg's case, it now has a 427cid Windsor with a Callies DragonSlayer crank pushing dished Diamond Pistons for a 9.25 compression ratio.

Heads are Air Flow Research 205s with 66cc chambers. Like many racers, a Comp Cams bumpstick is used, this one having 0.668/0.661 lift and 248/254 degrees of duration. An Edelbrock Spyder intake with Holley EFI fuels it all with assistance from Precision Turbo & Engine 67mm twin-turbos. Shifting is done from a four-speed 1987 Ford AOD unit built by Arnett's Garage & Racing with 3.50 gears spinning the rear wheels.

So how did this combination do? Starting with a 9.33 at 131.36 mph, giving a third-place showing, Greg made a noticeable improvement through the traps at Indy with a 9.20 at 154.40, although he remained third. ETs and trap speeds remained stable throughout the duration of Drag Week™ with a personal best of 9.17, which was good enough for third place in Modified Power Adder.

Will He Be Back In 2014? "Yes, I plan on being in Oklahoma in September. Two others from last year and I are making plans to haul all three cars. I've been repairing the engine damage from last year's Drag Week™ as I had an injector get clogged up and torched a cylinder head. I'm also installing a belt-driven fuel pump for more fuel and installing aluminum tail pipes for less noise in the cockpit—I might be able to listen to the radio this year! I'm also upgrading the wiring on the cooling fans and removing the wishbone on my suspension so that I can run in the Street Class this year.